Gender Trap

Emily W. Kane is Professor of Sociology, and a member of the Program in Women and Gender Studies, at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

• "Glamour Babies" and "Little Toughies" Wanting a Girl, Wanting a Boy: Conceptual Building Blocks "It's in Their Nature": Naturalizers "I Think a Lot of It Is Us, Parents and Society": Cultivators "We Try Not to Encourage It, but I Know It Gets in There": Refiners "You Applaud All the Other Stuff": Innovators "Surviving in a Gendered Culture": Resisters "A Better World": Dismantling the Gender Trap Appendix: Research Methods

"Fundamentally, this book delves deeply into the meanings and practices of gender in parenting, offering concrete examples of the daily bargains and compromises that parents and children make and situating their negotiations in a palpable world of witnesses whose gaze parents feel upon them. Undergraduates will enjoy the real-world stories of gendered structures coming alive in interaction. The rest of us are likely to be surprised by what Kane found, either so much gender resistance or so much gender retrenchment- with both ably chronicled here." - Allison J. Pugh (American Journal of Sociology) "A fascinating and important exploration and analysis of how parents navigate the gender trap." - Cordelia Fine,author of Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference "Emily Kane shows clearly that most parents understand childrens personality to be some combination of nature and nurture, and many wish they could help nurture their children to escape gender traps. Yet these parents are themselves trapped by the gender structure itself, especially the accountability they feel to other peoples expectations, and the fear that if their boys are free to explore activities usually associated with girls they will be punished by the world around them. The author shows clearly that to help parents navigate childrearing, we have to change the world around them. A good read, perfect for the undergraduate classroom, and clear enough even to give to those new parents in your family or the neighborhood." - Barbara J. Risman,editor of Families as They Really Are "With insight and compassion, Kane shows how today's parentseven those with egalitarian intentionstoo often still nudge their children toward narrow binary conceptions of gender. But Kane's is not simply a story of social reproduction; she shows how parents variously understand, navigate, and even sometimes resist the gender trap, pointing the way to a more humane world for all of our children." - Michael A. Messner,author of It's All for the Kids: Gender, Families and Youth Sports "[] Kanes carefully constructed arguments and ample qualitative evidence makes this a very useful read for social scientists interested in family, childhood, socialization, and/or gender." (Social Forces) "Kane writes in a manner that is easily understood yet expressive [...] the book is essential to areas in Sociology that focus on family, gender, inequality, as well as theory (social constructionism). At the same time, The Gender Trap can be used in Gender studies, Queer studies, Psychology, and in Women's studies as Kane touches on the subjects of class, race, sexual orientation and more when discussions notions of gender." (Metapsychology)